Redundancies still at 190

The number of redundancies among workers at Alliance
Group's Mataura plant is sitting at 190, but that figure could
increase to more than 200.

In September, the meat company announced plans to move its
sheep-processing facility from Mataura to its sister plant at
Lorneville, near Invercargill, affecting 325 jobs.

A total of 260 sheep meatworkers were offered the opportunity
to shift to Lorneville.

The company's processing general manager, John Brader,
confirmed yesterday 128 did not want to transfer, while 135
sought transfers. Replies had not been received from 64
employees and those would be followed up, he said.

The future of 65 management, supervisors, engineers and
administrators had been under a cloud. While 11 of those had
expressed interest in transferring, only three were able to
be placed, he said.

Mr Brader, who did not want to comment on the cost of the
redundancies, said the first chain at Lorneville was due to
start tomorrow and it was hoped to have all chains operating
by early to mid-December.

Beef processing at Mataura was not affected by the proposal.
It began late last month on a day shift and was expected to
have a day shift and a night shift operating by the second
week of December.

The company had been working with the Meat Workers Union
through the restructuring process and it had gone "very
well", Mr Brader said.